Animals Mate: A Book About Where Babies Come From

Farranto presents the basic mechanics of procreation, accompanied by black-and-white hatched portraits of animal pairs doing the deed. Terms including mating and sexual reproduction are defined straightforwardly (“Mating is when two animals come together to reproduce”), while photorealistic sketches against muted pastel backgrounds show various animals mid-coitus (giraffes, ladybugs, and peacocks, for example). Species differences are mentioned, like how some aqueous creatures fertilize “outside the body, in the water” and how, for marsupials, “the baby is born and then grows a little more in a pouch on the mother’s body”—but some passages will require extratextual conversations, such as one about how egg fertilization can, in some cases, lead to many babies. More of an introduction to procreation than a definitive guide (though used to described the act, words such as penis and vagina go undefined), this nonfiction picture book may nevertheless help alleviate young readers’ curiosity surrounding a frequently taboo topic. Ages 5–8. (June)